Post walkout amid UK strike threat

A walkout by postal staff in London is due to start, amid the spectre of a much more crippling national strike.

Thousands of Communication Workers Union (CWU) members in the city are stopping work for 24 hours in the latest of a wave of regional stoppages.

It comes after postal workers' leaders made last-ditch attempts to avert a national walkout, warning on Tuesday they would have "no option" than to press ahead with action if a bitter row over pay, jobs and conditions is not settled in the next few days.

The CWU said it would set strike dates on Thursday in the absence of progress. Seven days' notice has to be given of a strike, so the earliest date for a walkout would be October 22.

Business secretary Lord Mandelson warned that a national postal strike would be a "suicidal act".

On Tuesday, postal workers voted by three to one in favour of industrial action, but the union held back from announcing strikes dates, saying instead that it was giving one last chance to avert a national walkout.

Dave Ward, the union's deputy general secretary, said: "Postal workers do not want to take strike action but neither are they prepared to put up with continuing attacks from a management which is failing."

The CWU called for a new benefits package to reward postal workers, urged Royal Mail to step back from imposing changes and said a three-year agreement should be reached aimed at providing long term stability for the business, employees and customers.

Royal Mail managing director Mark Higson said the union had raised a number of issues, including a demand for more money.

He added: "If the union are serious about resolving this dispute they should immediately lift the threat of strike action, including the strikes planned for London, which have hung over our customers for far too long."